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By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - ICAP (L:IAP), the world's largest interdealer broker, has complained to the European Ombudsman about European Union regulatory prejudice in a financial benchmark rigging probe last year, following in the footsteps of Credit Agricole (PA:CAGR).
The European Commission in June charged ICAP with fixing yen interest rate derivatives as part of a cartel including UBS (VX:UBSN), Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn), RBS (L:RBS), JPMorgan (N:JPM), Citigroup (N:C) and broker RP Martin.
Unlike this group of banks and brokers, which admitted wrongdoing in return for a reduced fine, ICAP has rejected the EU accusations.
The broker filed its objection on Oct. 8, Ombudsman Ben Hagard said, declining to provide details.
"We will check if there are sufficient grounds to open an inquiry. Depending on the complexity of the case, in general we take decisions within one month," he said. The EU agency investigates complaints about maladministration in European Union institutions.
ICAP declined to comment. The broker's grievance is similar to the one filed by French bank Credit Agricole in July, a person familiar with the matter said.
The French bank has accused the EU competition watchdog of unfair comments suggesting wrongdoing during its investigation of the euro interest rate benchmark.
(Additional reporting by Clare Hutchison in London. Editing by Jane Merriman)